The Kremlin summons the US ambassador: “Relations on the verge of rupture”. At the meeting with Mario Draghi, Boris Johnson, Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz, the president warns: Beijing cannot be counted on
Washington The Kremlin yesterday summoned the US ambassador to Moscow, John Sullivan, and handed him an official protest note over the words of Joe Biden, “unworthy of such a high-ranking statesman.” Last week the US president called Vladimir Putin “a war criminal”. The reaction of the Russians came a bit in slow motion, but it is equally harsh: “relations between us and the United States are on the verge of rupture”. From Washington they relaunched, with cyber security adviser Anne Neuberger: “We know that the Russians could launch cyber attacks against our crucial infrastructures, such as aqueducts, electricity grids, hospitals”. Biden himself intervenes with a written statement: “If they hit us we will respond in kind.”
Videoconferencing
Hence, therefore, the return of the American president to the international diplomatic scene. The White House leader held a video conference meeting of the so-called “Quint” format within NATO, which includes French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Prime Minister Mario Draghi . It is the nucleus that will have to set and orient the agenda of the Atlantic Alliance summit, scheduled for Thursday 24 March in Brussels. The official account of the meeting is clearly generic: “The leaders examined serious concerns about Russia’s brutal tactics in Ukraine, including attacks on civilians.” The note then explains that “the allies will continue to provide assistance to the Ukrainians who are courageously defending their country”. Finally, “the efforts to face the humanitarian emergency will continue”.
Plan
Italy too “will do its part,” said Draghi, on a visit to a reception center in Palmanova, in Friuli. The government is preparing a 400 million euro plan, tailored to the needs “of the approximately 60,000 refugees who have arrived in Italy so far”, added the prime minister. The refugee crisis will once again test the mechanisms of solidarity among Europeans. The United States, Biden said, is ready to “make a contribution”. That is to say: money mainly to the countries of Eastern Europe. This will also be discussed in the bilateral meeting scheduled for Saturday 26 January in Warsaw, with Polish President Andrzej Duda. In the next few days there may be difficult decisions to make. Here then is that Biden urges “the unity of the Western front”, understood as the desire to arrive at a synthesis if different assessments should emerge in the summit, especially on the military level. The uncertainty is enormous. The American president and the British premier shared the latest reports from their respective secret services. The White House spokesperson, Jen Psaki, leaked something in the usual “briefing” with reporters: “On the ground the situation seems static, the Russians are unable to achieve the objectives they had set themselves”.
The situation
Putin, however, shows no signs of abating. Indeed, his army is multiplying indiscriminate bombings. Some NATO partners, the Eastern countries, are asking to do more. The most sensitive to these reminders is Boris Johnson. Biden, however, for the moment, is not unbalanced. Even yesterday he was keen to emphasize only one fixed point: the United States and the Atlantic Alliance must be very careful not to be drawn into a direct confrontation with the Russians. It would be the Third World War. The American leader then vented all his dissatisfaction with China’s attitude. The phone call with Xi Jinping last Friday did not produce anything concrete. The spokeswoman Psaki commented: “Beijing has not yet openly condemned the aggression of Russia”. Hence Biden’s final message to the four European interlocutors: let’s give space to the initiatives of Volodymyr Zelensky, but we cannot count on the Chinese to arrive at a diplomatic solution.
March 21, 2022 (change March 21, 2022 | 22:57)
© Time.News